Pau F3: Gunther takes his first win of 2017
European Formula 3's 2016 runner-up Maximilian Gunther has taken his first win of the 2017 campaign in the second race at Pau.
Maximilian Günther, Prema Powerteam Dallara F317 - Mercedes-Benz
FIA F3 / Suer
Prema driver Gunther picked off Carlin poleman Lando Norris at the start, taking the inside line into the first right-hander, which proved to be the decisive move of the race.
McLaren junior Norris didn’t give up without a fight and desperately tried to get by during the opening laps, going side-by-side up the hill and then challenging the German on the outside of the Pont Oscar hairpin.
However Gunther stayed in control of the race and started slowly building a gap to Norris, which was two seconds at the halfway point. Prema’s Callum Ilott and Motopark’s Joel Eriksson were duelling for third another two seconds behind.
By lap 20, the battle for the podium positions had lost its intensity when Gunther increased the gap to Norris to three seconds, while Ilott managed to drive away from championship leader Eriksson.
Eriksson then crashed out on lap 23 at the Foch chicane, a costly mistake in the fight for the European F3 title.
Gunther, who finished third in race one, went on to score a comfortable victory ahead of Norris and Ilott.
Eriksson’s crash promoted Harrison Newey to fourth. Newey had jumped from seventh to fifth at the start and then had to fight off Ralf Aron and Jake Hughes for the duration of the race, hanging on to score his best finish in European F3 so far.
Behind his Hitech teammates Aron and Hughes, Nikita Mazepin was seventh for Hitech after losing out at the start, while Carlin trio Ferdinand Habsburg, Jehan Daruvala and Jake Dennis round out the top 10.
In the only on-track collision of the race, Marino Sato tapped Keyvan Andres into a spin at the Lycee hairpin.
Prema's Guan Yu Zhou retired on lap 19 with a mechanical problem, while Joey Mawson was also forced to retire his VAR Dallara in the dying stages on the 33-minute race.
Norris will start from pole in the third and last race of the weekend, the 76th Pau Grand Prix. He will again find Gunther alongside him with Ilott and Eriksson starting on the second row.
Race results:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Maximilian Gunther | Prema Powerteam | 34'14.016 |
2 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 1.953 |
3 | Callum Ilott | Prema Powerteam | 5.287 |
4 | Harrison Newey | Van Amersfoort Racing | 11.883 |
5 | Ralf Aron | Hitech GP | 12.596 |
6 | Jake Hughes | Hitech GP | 13.411 |
7 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech GP | 15.873 |
8 | Ferdinand Habsburg | Carlin | 17.371 |
9 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | 18.009 |
10 | Jake Dennis | Carlin | 20.084 |
11 | Mick Schumacher | Prema Powerteam | 24.765 |
12 | Tadasuke Makino | Hitech GP | 26.788 |
13 | Pedro Piquet | Van Amersfoort Racing | 27.824 |
14 | David Beckmann | Van Amersfoort Racing | 28.920 |
15 | Keyvan Andres | Motopark | 1'06.150 |
16 | Joey Mawson | Van Amersfoort Racing | 3 Laps |
Ret | Joel Eriksson | Motopark | |
Ret | Guan Yu Zhou | Prema Powerteam | |
Ret | Marino Sato | Motopark |
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